Man Utd legend Darren Fletcher returning would be a ‘huge advantage’ for the club – Ian McGarry (Pic: GETTY)

That’s according to football consultant Ian McGarry, who believes Fletcher’s arrival would prevent Ed Woodward and the Glazers from bringing in players who are not suited to the Red Devils.

United have long been searching for a new director of football, with former accountant and investment banker Woodward instead calling the shots quite unsuccessfully since David Gill’s departure in 2013.

Recent reports have claimed they are in discussions with ex-captain Fletcher – who will leave Championship outfit Stoke upon the expiry of his contract – over a return to the club that would see him take on a recruitment-based role.

And McGarry feels bringing the Scot back to Old Trafford would be a clever move from United.

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“His massive experience in terms of playing football allows him certainly to be able to judge a player properly”

Ian McGarry

“I don’t think it’s any secret in the last few days that Darren Fletcher, former captain of Manchester United who has been released by Stoke City as a player, has been talking to the club about a role in recruitment,” he told The Transfer Window podcast.

“I’m not sure that that necessarily is the case that he has been offered the director of football role, but certainly he has been talked about in terms of his ideas with regards to future recruitment for Manchester United.

“I say this: his massive experience in terms of playing football allows him certainly to be able to judge a player properly and I’m not in anyway judging and saying that he can magically come up with four or five candidates to join Manchester United this summer who will transform their fortunes.

“However, I think the difference having someone like Darren Fletcher in place would make is that you take away what we’ve seen to be or perceived to be the control over recruitment, which Ed Woodward and the Glazers have exercised in the past three years and in signing players who possibly are not suitable to the club or indeed not even able to integrate into the team that they have already.”

McGarry’s comments come as:

Man Utd are reportedly talking to Darren Fletcher about returning in a recruitment role (Pic: GETTY)

He continued: “So I think Darren Fletcher’s experience – he’s a very intelligent, articulate man as well, he knows the club inside out – so I think having his advice at least, regardless of what position he may take up, would be a huge advantage for Manchester United in terms of trying to improve their recruitment policy and take the club forward in this next transfer window.

“But as we discussed a couple of weeks ago about director of football roles, you need to have administrative experience and you also need to be able to prove your worth in terms of transfer negotiations.

“Now, so many times in the Sir Alex Ferguson era, all it took was a meeting with the great man with a player and his parents and effectively it would be, ‘oh yeah we’d love to sign for you because you are Sir Alex Ferguson.’

“Manchester United have lost that aura, not just in terms of their manager but also in terms of the club itself having lost its lustre of being a serial winner.

McGarry feels Fletcher would bring back an aura United have lacked since Sir Alex Ferguson left (Pic: GETTY)

“I think what someone like Darren Fletcher would bring to the club is a sense of their history, tradition, but also someone who’s very down to earth, someone who can be realistic and also very charismatic in terms of negotiations with potential signing targets and their families and agents etcetera – which is also very important as we know.

“In a situation, in a climate where Manchester United will struggle to attract the best players in the world, someone like Darren Fletcher will be able to explain the project going forward, their future ambitions and allow a player to see what might be the case for him in the future rather than simply ‘we’re gonna be competing for a Premier League or Champions League in the next season’ – which clearly they’re not.

“So I think someone with Fletcher’s ability to communicate very well with other players and someone who has a history at the club and is able to say ‘look, things might not look so rosy now, but let’s look at a four or five year contract where you will be competing in the Champions League and the Premier League etcetera etcetera’, would be a very slick move for United.

“And obviously he will have a very easy relationship with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.”